Cheese expert Max McCalman stresses the importance of seasonality for cheese, and thus he chose six that should theoretically ripen in time for Valentine's Day. Recommending quince paste, dates, and raisin walnut bread on the side, he opts for the following : gouda, the well-known cows'-milk cheese from Holland ("hard, sharp with slight butterscotch flavor"); stilton, England's premier blue, from cows' milk ("firm with a mineral tang"); a vacherin called L'Edel De Cleron, a cows'-milk cheese from Franche-Comte ("soft with a sweet resinous flavor"); Vermont Shepherd, a sheep's-milk cheese from Vermont ("firm with a nutty herbal flavor"); Durrus, a cows'-milk cheese from Ireland ("soft with a floral and milky flavor"); and gruyere, the famed cows'-milk cheese from Switzerland ("hard, nutty, and slightly sweet").